This year, the Lakes Festival is moving to a pass system for the festival. The main events programme will be exclusive to pass-holders, there will be exclusive guest-related goodies and a fancy wristband identifying you as a festival supporter!

The Festival’s Gala Opening Night this year will be ‘Quick on the Draw‘ – a spectacular evening of live draw featuring some of the fastest, funniest and most talented cartoonists on the planet. On his first appearance in the UK the legendary Sergio Aragonés will demonstrate his quick-fire genius together with superstars from the United States’ cartooning scene.

Other events include an appearance by Tony Husband, best-known for his “Yobs” strip in Private Eye, who co-founded and co-edited Oink! comic and has more than 40 books published. He received critical acclaim for his telling of the story of his father’s dementia, Take Care Son, and has recently launched From A Dark Place, a comic book about his son’s journey through drug addiction

The full programme of events will be announced on 15th May, but alongside already-highlighted guests such as Jason Latour, Stan Sakai, Charlie Adlard, Hannah Berry, Brendan McCarthy and Peter Milligan there is plenty that has already seen comics fans reaching for their mouse and booking early for the weekend of 13th – 15th October 2017.

Melinda Gebbie’s trail of imagery is littered with low-brow characters gleaned from her own career as an underground cartoonist and self-taught painter. Discover more about her kaleidoscopic world of style and texture at the festival this year.

Then there’s caricaturist, cartoonist and humorous illustrator,Tom Richmond – the current superstar of the ultimate satirical magazine, MAD, and recipient of the highest honour in cartooning, Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year, Reuben Awards, USA – a tour de force in every sense.

Rick Stromoski is one of the United States most popular and prolific cartoonists, drawing and painting anything and everything from superheroes to urban landscapes with great style, humour and originality.

The Festival will also have a special delegation of creative talent from Finland, in partnership with the Finnish Institute, along with many Moomin-themed celebrations. The line-up includes Johanna Rojola, the equivalent of our Comics Laureate in Finland – and one of Finland’s leading comic artists; and comics art rock star, Petteri Tikkanen.

The Festival will also be celebrating the work of the late Leo Baxendale, one of Britain’s most influential comic creators, who, sadly, died last month. A special one-off print of Leo’s work, donated by the artist himself, is to be put on permanent display in the Brewery Arts Centre.

The Comics Clock Tower will also be packed with comic creators from across the UK and beyond, who will also be announced this month.

There will also be book launches aplenty, including Grandville: Force Majeure, Festival patron Bryan Talbot‘s fifth and final Grandville book.

The Lakes International Comic Art Festival is the only one of its kind in the UK, taking place in one of the UK’s most beautiful areas – the English Lake District in the North West of the country, in the market town of Kendal. Modelled on European-style festivals, such as Angoulême in France, it takes over the whole town for a weekend of comic art. Its aim is to celebrate the whole spectrum of comic art, inspiring existing comic art fans and creators and, it hopes, generating new audiences and creators too. It invests in creators through a commissioning programme and has an emphasis on developing international collaborations.

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